Historical Writings

After years of iconoclasm (opposition to and destruction of icons), two-dimensional images are restored for worship in the Eastern Empire, an event known as "The Triumph of Orthodoxy."

Muslims behead Bishop Elogius in Cordoba, Spain.

In response to a sermon by John Knox, a Reformation mob burns churches in Perth, Scotland, and instructs the friars to hold mass no more.

New York's English Deputies approved a new legal code, which guaranteed all Protestants the right to practice their religious observances unhindered. (There were currently a host of Protestant groups thriving within this now-English colony, acquired only seven months earlier from the Dutch.)

English revivalist George Whitefield wrote in his journal: 'Suffering times are a Christian's best improving times; for they break the will, wean us from the creature, prove the heart.'

Mendelssohn revives Bach's St. Matthew Passion at the Singakademie in Berlin. A thousand people have to be turned away from the performance for lack of room.

Wittenberg College was chartered in Springfield, Ohio, under Lutheran auspices.

Birth of H. Frances Davidson, pioneer missionary. In 1892 she became the first woman from the Brethren in Christ Church to earn an M.A. degree, and in 1897 became one of her denomination's first missionaries to travel to the African continent.

Gerard Manley Hopkins preaches his "dominical" - a practice sermon.

Samuel Zwemer preaches his first sermon - to a congregation of African-Americans in a small New Brunswick, New Jersey, church. He will go on to become a notable missionary to the Arab world.

Death in Tunbridge Wells, England, of Henry Drummond, Scottish evangelist and religious writer, best remembered for his classic meditation on 1 Corinthians 13 “The Love Chapter” entitled The Greatest Thing in the World.

Death of Mary Ann Thomson, 89, American hymnwriter. Among her most enduring contributions to the Church were the lyrics to "O Zion, Haste, Thy Mission High Fulfilling," which she wrote at age 34.

Leonid Zwicki is installed as bishop of the newly-created Belarusian Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs requires 75,000 mosques to preach a sermon this day advising Muslims that Christian missionaries present a danger to national unity and integrity.

Thirty or more Hindus, angered at Christian preaching, attack pastor Erra Krupanamdam while he is returning from a prayer meeting in Andra Pradesh state, India, fracturing his spine and ribs.

A suicide bomber in a car attacks St. Finbar’s Catholic Church in Jos, Nigeria, leaving ten people dead.